I can't relax when I'm watching a biographical drama, because it's so close to what it is that I do that I just long for more fiction - so that I can switch off.

The minute you become a leader of a country, you go into a very small club. You join that sort of pantheon of other world leaders.

People test movies within an inch of their life, so that the entire audience experience is a uniform one.

The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations with filmmakers.

I wrote 'Hereafter' quickly and without mapping it out too much or being too schematic. As an exercise, I think that was incredibly important.

I don't want to direct. I have no directing ambition whatsoever. And as long as I meet filmmakers like Tom Hooper, Stephen Frears, and others who allow that collaboration, I can't see why I would ever want to direct.

I give everything my best shot and sometimes it doesn't work out and other times it works out much better than you thought.